First Edition: Aug. 25, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Veteran’s Appendectomy Launches Excruciating Months-Long Battle Over Bill 
In late August 2019, Shannon Harness awoke to serious pain in the lower right side of his abdomen — a telltale sign of appendicitis. He booked it to the emergency room of the only hospital in the county: Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida, Colorado. After a CT scan, doctors told Harness he had acute appendicitis and required immediate surgery. (Lawrence, 8/25)

Kaiser Health News: Wildfires Provide Another Reason To Mask Up 
If you have declined to wear a face mask during the COVID-19 crisis, you might want to reconsider, as the smoke from over 300 wildfires chokes people across central and Northern California. But you are going to have to think a little more about what kind of mask is best. (Wolfson, 8/25)

Kaiser Health News: Rather Than Give Away Its COVID Vaccine, Oxford Makes A Deal With Drugmaker
In a business driven by profit, vaccines have a problem. They’re not very profitable — at least not without government subsidies. Pharma companies favor expensive medicines that must be taken repeatedly and generate revenue for years or decades. Vaccines are often given only once or twice. In many parts of the world, established vaccines cost a few dollars per dose or less. Last year only four companies were making vaccines for the U.S. market, down from more than 20 in the 1970s. As recently as Feb. 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, complained that no major drug company had committed to “step up” to make a coronavirus vaccine, calling the situation “very difficult and frustrating.” (Hancock, 8/25)

Kaiser Health News: Analysis: You’ve Checked For Fever. Now, What’s Your Risk Tolerance? 
As some parts of America gingerly begin to open up after months of near-total lockdown, people have questions. Will it be safe to take a train? A plane? Visit the hair salon? An indoor restaurant? There are many knowable parameters in the equation: your health; the prevalence of cases where you live; the safety precautions being taken anyplace you want to visit. But the final answer may depend on your individual risk tolerance for exposure to infectious disease. (Rosenthal, 8/25)

CNN: While Nationwide Surge May Be Slowing, Officials Warn Of Troubling Covid-19 Signs Across US Heartland 
New Covid-19 cases in the US may be on the decline but some officials across the country's heartland reported worrisome news this week. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said Monday the state had reached an "unfortunate milestone" by reporting at least one case of the virus in every county. The state's infection rate, she said, "continues an alarming trend in the wrong direction." ... In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear warned cases could spike again as the state reported more deaths last week than "in any other week battling the virus." (Maxouris, 8/25)

Reuters: Pandemic Pace Slows Worldwide Except For Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean: WHO 
The COVID-19 pandemic is still expanding, but the rise in cases and deaths has slowed globally, except for southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. In its latest epidemiological update, issued on Monday night, it said that the Americas remains the hardest-hit region, accounting for half of newly reported cases and 62% of the 39,240 deaths worldwide in the past week. (Nebehay, 8/25)

The Washington Post: First Coronavirus Reinfection Documented In Hong Kong, Researchers Say 
The fact that the man had no symptoms the second time suggests his immune system protected him from disease, although it did not stop the reinfection. The fact that the man had no symptoms the second time suggests his immune system protected him from disease, although it did not stop the reinfection. Study author Kwok-Yung Yuen and his colleagues suggest in their paper that herd immunity is unlikely to eliminate covid-19 on its own and that a potential covid-19 vaccine may not provide lifelong immunity to the disease.(Taylor and Eunjung Cha, 8/24)

AP: Scientists Say Hong Kong Man Got Coronavirus A Second Time
University of Hong Kong scientists claim to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Genetic tests revealed that a 33-year-old man returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain in mid-August had a different strain of the coronavirus than the one he’d previously been infected with in March, said Dr. Kelvin Kai-Wang To, the microbiologist who led the work. (Marchione, 8/24)

The New York Times: First Documented Coronavirus Reinfection Reported In Hong Kong 
Doctors have reported several cases of presumed reinfection in the United States and elsewhere, but none of those cases have been confirmed with rigorous testing. Recovered people are known to carry viral fragments for weeks, which can lead to positive test results in the absence of live virus. But the Hong Kong researchers sequenced the virus from both of the man’s infections and found significant differences, suggesting that the patient had been infected a second time. (Mandavilli, 8/24)

Stat: First Covid-19 Reinfection Documented In Hong Kong, Researchers Say
The case raises questions about the durability of immune protection from the coronavirus. But it was also met with caution by other scientists, who questioned the extent to which the case pointed to broader concerns about reinfection. There have been scattered reports of cases of Covid-19 reinfection. Those reports, though, have been based on anecdotal evidence and largely attributed to flaws in testing. (Joseph, 8/24)

Vox: What The Hong Kong Covid-19 Reinfection Case Tells Us About Coronavirus Immunity 
The report, if corroborated, is in line with what immunity experts have been telling us is possible with this virus. The most important detail: The man was not symptomatic during his second infection, which shows that his immune system did respond to the virus. “This is no cause for alarm,” Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki tweeted about the new results from Hong Kong. “This is a textbook example of how immunity should work.” (Also, as this is a report on a single patient, it can’t tell us how common reinfections like this are.) (Resnick, 8/24)

The Washington Post: Takeaways From Republican National Convention Night 1 
The novel coronavirus is the issue Trump would rather not have looming over him. ... But the convention began its prime hours Monday night by focusing on the unavoidable topic — and in one major way attempting to rewrite history. The convention played a video featuring Democrats and others who, at one point or another, downplayed the severity of the outbreak. “From the very beginning, Democrats, the media and the World Health Organization got coronavirus wrong,” the narrator said. “The World Health Organization said authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” (Blake, 8/25)

The New York Times: Republicans Nominate Trump At RNC, Who Flings Baseless Attacks At Biden 
At times, the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored serious warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presided over an economy that began crumbling in the spring. (Martin, Burns and Karni, 8/24)

The Hill: Trump Thanks Front-Line Workers At Night One Of Convention 
President Trump met with front-line workers in his first appearance during the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday. Trump appeared on video with a group of front-line workers — including two nurses, a postal worker, a truck driver, a custodian and a police officer — in the East Room of the White House. “These are the incredible workers that helped us so much with [COVID-19],” Trump told the group of individuals. “These are great, great people, doctors, nurses, firemen, policemen. We want to thank you.” (Chalfant, 8/24)

Politico: RNC Tries To Rewrite Pandemic History, Casting Trump As Decisive Leader 
The Republican National Convention put President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic front and center on opening night, depicting him as a decisive leader who marshaled resources, forcefully responded to the deadly threat, and “moved mountains” to save American lives. What it didn’t say is that the United States, with more than 5 million cases and more than 175,000 dead, with schools and businesses still closed and millions unemployed, has had one of the worst records on the pandemic in the world. (Kenen, 8/25)

Politico: Republicans Warn Of Chaos If Biden Wins: Key Moments From The Convention's First Night 
Amy Johnson Ford, a nurse from rural Virginia, and Dr. G.E. Ghali, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, touted Trump as having acting decisively on defeating the pandemic. Ford praised Trump for expanding telehealth in rural areas, while Ghali applauded Trump for pushing treatments and testing through normally lengthy regulatory timelines. “Let me be clear, as a health care professional, I can tell you without hesitation Donald Trump's quick action and leadership saved thousands of lives during Covid-19,” Ford said. (Oprysko, Choi, Feldscher and Mintz, 8/24)

USA Today: RNC: Republicans Spent Day 1 Defending Trump's Virus Response
Republicans defended President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and slammed Joe Biden on Monday during the first night of a GOP convention that was intended to be upbeat but that often veered into a dark assessment of the Democratic Party. “Joe Biden’s entire economic platform seems designed to crush the working man and woman,” claimed Donald Trump Jr., during remarks in which he also referred to the former vice president as “Beijing Biden” and the “Loch Ness monster” of the swamp Trump says he wants to drain. (Subramanian, Groppe, King and Fritze, 8/24)

The New York Times: Trump Keeps Promoting A Drug Order That No One Has Seen 
President Trump has made his executive order tying prescription drug prices in the United States to the prices paid in Europe and other developed nations — and the ensuing war that has broken out with the pharmaceutical industry — a centerpiece of his campaign for re-election. The problem: No such executive order has been released. (Gay Stolberg and Sanger-Katz, 8/24)

Reuters: Exclusive: Fauci Says Rushing Out A Vaccine Could Jeopardize Testing Of Others
“The one thing that you would not want to see with a vaccine is getting an EUA (emergency use authorization) before you have a signal of efficacy,” Fauci told Reuters in a phone interview. “One of the potential dangers if you prematurely let a vaccine out is that it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the other vaccines to enroll people in their trial,” Fauci said. (Steenhuysen and O'Donnell, 8/24)

The New York Times: F.D.A. ‘Grossly Misrepresented’ Blood Plasma Data, Scientists Say 
At a news conference on Sunday announcing the emergency approval of blood plasma for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, President Trump and two of his top health officials cited the same statistic: that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent. ... But scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed this data, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study: those who were under 80 years old, not on ventilators and received plasma known to contain high levels of virus-fighting antibodies within three days of diagnosis. (Thomas and Fink, 8/24)

AP: UN Cautions That Virus Plasma Treatment Still Experimental
The World Health Organization on Monday cautioned that using blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors to treat other patients is still considered an experimental therapy, voicing the concern as a U.S. boost for the treatment has many scientists afraid formal studies will be derailed. On Sunday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized what’s called “emergency use” of the treatment under its special powers to speed the availability of promising experimental drugs during a public health crisis. The action isn’t the same as approving plasma as safe and effective, and numerous rigorous studies are underway to find out if it really works. (Cheng, 8/25)

The Hill: Science Inconclusive On Use Of Convalescent Plasma In COVID-19 Patients 
President Trump’s announcement that his administration would approve the emergency use of convalescent plasma in patients suffering from COVID-19 has put the government out of step with scientists who say there is no firm indication yet that such treatment actually works. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma, allowing it to be administered to those hospitalized with COVID-19. In a letter, FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton said the agency had concluded “that it is reasonable to believe that COVID-19 convalescent plasma may be effective for the treatment” of those in the hospital. (Wilson, 8/24)

The Washington Post: Administration Claims On Effectiveness Of Convalescent Plasma Wrong, Misleading, Scientists Say 
The assertion was breathtaking: Out of 100 people who suffered from the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, 35 were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease. That’s how Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn described the blood product’s effectiveness on Sunday at a news conference at the White House. ... But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn’t accurate, scientists said Monday. The FDA commissioner appeared to have mixed up absolute risk and relative risk, which are basic concepts in economics and in the presentation of data from clinical trials. “I’m absolutely incredulous,” said Peter Lurie, a former top FDA official and now the president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (McGinley, Abutaleb and Bernstein, 8/24)

Politico: Navarro’s Push For Plasma Treatment Goes Further Than FDA Scientists
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday exaggerated the efficacy of blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment, urging Americans to disregard any skepticism of the controversial therapy. The remarks from Navarro — who has previously promoted dubious coronavirus treatments, including hydroxychloroquine — came after the Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19 patients. (Forgey, 8/24)

The Hill: FDA Chief Says Criticism For Misrepresenting Convalescent Plasma Stats Is Warranted
The head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said criticism for his praise of convalescent plasma treatment was warranted, but denied the decision to authorize the emergency use of the treatment for COVID-19 patients was politically motivated. "I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified. What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction," Stephen Hahn said in a lengthy Twitter post. (Weixel, 8/24)

Reuters: Exclusive: FDA Commissioner Disputes Trump, Says No 'Deep State' Thwarting Vaccine 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not harbor “deep state” elements, the agency’s head told Reuters on Monday, rejecting criticism from President Donald Trump that staff there were trying to delay a coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Stephen Hahn said he was completely confident that FDA workers were focused solely on the interests of the American people during the coronavirus pandemic. Without evidence, Trump on Saturday accused members of the so-called “deep state” working within the FDA of complicating efforts to test COVID-19 vaccines in order to delay results until after the Nov. 3 presidential election. (Mason, 8/24)

Stat: Political Newcomer Stephen Hahn Struggles To Protect An FDA Under Siege
Stephen Hahn, a political novice who moved here in December to take over the Food and Drug Administration, has found himself steering his agency through the most tumultuous time in its history. But with almost no institutional knowledge behind him, FDA experts worry he’s flying blind, leaving the agency flailing despite its vital role in the effort to control the spread of Covid-19. (Florko and Facher, 8/24)

AP: Biden, Harris To Get Routine Virus Testing, A Notable Change
In a notable change, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will now be regularly tested for the coronavirus as the race heats up, a campaign aide confirmed Monday. “This announcement is another step demonstrating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ commitment to turn the page on Trump’s catastrophic mismanagement during the worst public health crisis in 100 years,” said Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates. (Jaffe, 8/24)

CIDRAP: Study Suggests Limited Diagnostic Value For Repeat COVID-19 Testing
Of 10,165 patients tested for COVID-19 at a large Los Angeles health system, 6.2% were positive, and only 1.9% tested positive after an initial negative result—calling into question the diagnostic value of repeat testing amid limited testing resources, according to a retrospective study published late last week in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. Researchers analyzed all test results for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, at the UCLA Health System from Mar 9 to Apr 29 to understand the diagnostic yield of repeat testing in view of scarce test supplies and personal protective equipment. (8/24)

The New York Times: DeJoy Defends Postal Changes As Trump Continues To Attack Voting By Mail 
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress on Monday that the Postal Service could be trusted to carry out the largest vote-by-mail program in American history without political bias, even as President Trump repeated baseless accusations that mail-in voting would be used by his rivals to rig the November election against him. Under tough questioning by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Mr. DeJoy, a major donor to Mr. Trump and other Republicans, mounted an outraged defense of the modifications he has made at the Postal Service that have thrust the agency into a political firestorm, denying that they were motivated by partisanship. He refused to commit to reversing the changes, which he characterized as vital cost-cutting measures for a cash-strapped agency badly in need of an overhaul, and scolded Congress for failing for years to attend to the post office’s financial woes. (Edmondson, 8/24)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Starts Trial Of COVID-19 Antibody Treatment 
British drugmaker AstraZeneca has begun testing an antibody-based cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, adding to recent signs of progress on possible medical solutions to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The London-listed firm, already among the leading players in the global race to develop a successful vaccine, said the study would evaluate if AZD7442, a combination of two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), was safe and tolerable in up to 48 healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 55 years. (Aripaka and Aakash B, 8/25)

Politico: AstraZeneca Denies White House Is Fast-Tracking Its Covid-19 Vaccine 
AstraZeneca says it hasn’t talked to the U.S. government about an emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine — a day after news reports that the Trump administration may greenlight the vaccine's use before the election. “It would be premature to speculate on that possibility,” the pharmaceutical company said in a statement. (Roubein, 8/24)

Politico: How Trump’s Win-At-All-Costs Vaccine Strategy Could Backfire
President Donald Trump’s blunt demands that the Food and Drug Administration speed the approval of coronavirus vaccines — before it's clear whether any now in development are effective — threaten to undermine the country’s best hope for ending the pandemic. Rushing out a vaccine without solid proof it works could lead many people to refuse to take it, public health experts warn. Worse still would be cutting corners to distribute a shot that then turns out not to work, leaving people unknowingly vulnerable to the deadly virus. (Owermohle, 8/24)

Stat: NIH Will Study Gilead's Remdesivir-Like Compound Against Covid-19
The National Institutes of Health plans to independently explore whether a Gilead Sciences (GILD) compound, which some academics maintain is highly similar to remdesivir, but which the company has deemphasized in its efforts, may be useful in combating Covid-19. The compound, called GS-441524, works in the same way as remdesivir to inhibit viruses, according to research that was conducted partly by the company (more here). But the compound has not been tested in humans and, for the past few months, a pair of researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has argued publicly that Gilead ought to run tests. (Silverman, 8/24)

CIDRAP: Remdesivir Of Scant Benefit In Hospitalized COVID Patients, Study Finds 
The antiviral drug remdesivir had little effect in patients with moderate COVID-19 in 105 hospitals in the United States, Europe, and Asia in a randomized, controlled, open-label trial published late last week in JAMA, adding to a mixed picture of the drug in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), which are considered the gold standard for gauging interventions. Researchers compared the clinical status of 533 coronavirus patients who had moderate pneumonia and were randomly assigned to receive remdesivir for 5 or 10 days or standard care from Mar 15 to Apr 18. Remdesivir was given in a 200-milligram (mg) intravenous dose on the first day, followed by 100 mg a day. (Van Beusekom, 8/24)

The New York Times: Oleandrin, Covid-19 Treatment Pitched To Trump, Could Be Dangerous 
A plant extract trumpeted last week as a “cure” for Covid-19 by the leader of a pillow company is untested and potentially dangerous, scientists say. Mike Lindell, the chief executive of My Pillow and a big donor to President Trump, told Axios that the president was enthusiastic about the drug, called oleandrin, when he heard about it at a White House meeting last month. ... The unsubstantiated claims alarmed scientists. No studies have shown that oleandrin is safe or effective as a coronavirus treatment. It’s unclear what dose the purported treatment would have, but ingesting even a tiny bit of the toxic shrub the compound comes from could kill you, experts say. (Murphy, 8/20)

The Washington Post: EPA Approves Cleanser For Use Against Covid19 
The Environmental Protection Agency gave emergency approval Monday for the application of a cleanser intended to kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces for up to seven days, and the state of Texas said it would allow American Airlines and two branches of Total Orthopedics Sports & Spine to start using the new product. The agency said it hoped the product — called SurfaceWise2 and made by Allied BioScience — would provide longer-lasting protection in public spaces and increase consumer confidence in air travel, which has suffered a big hit during the covid-19 pandemic. (Mufson, 8/24)

The Hill: EPA Approves Coronavirus-Killing Product — For Just One Airline 
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved what it says is the first long-lasting product to fight surface transmission of the coronavirus, but the special dispensation to use it is primarily going to one company: American Airlines. Monday’s announcement clears the way for the use of SurfaceWise2 by American Airlines in Texas, the first state to apply for an emergency exemption to use the disinfectant, which kills the virus on surfaces for up to seven days. (Beitsch, 8/24)

The Washington Post: These Are The Top Coronavirus Vaccines To Watch
The worldwide effort to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus kicked off in January, soon after scientists in China posted online the genome of a virus causing a mysterious pneumonia. Vaccine development usually takes years and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. These steps are now overlapping in the race to find a vaccine for a global disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Human testing began in some cases before animal studies were finished. As companies launch small Phase 1 trials intended to establish the correct dose, they already are planning the Phase 3 trials that evaluate whether the vaccines are effective and safe. (Steckelberg, Johnson, Florit and Alcantara, 8/24)

Stat: Four Scenarios On How We Might Develop Immunity To Covid-19
As the world wearies of trying to suppress the SARS-CoV-2 virus, many of us are wondering what the future will look like as we try to learn to live with it. Will it always have the capacity to make us so sick? Will our immune systems learn — and remember — how to cope with the new threat? Will vaccines be protective and long-lasting? (Branswell, 8/25)

The Wall Street Journal: As Child Covid Cases Rise, Doctors Watch For Potential Long-Term Effects 
As more children become infected with Covid-19, doctors are paying closer attention to potential long-term effects. In adults, one of Covid’s most troubling effects has been so-called long-haul cases, in which people whose illness initially seemed moderate end up having symptoms for months, sometimes getting worse over time. Now as doctors warn that children may be more vulnerable to the virus than initially believed, researchers are looking more closely at longer-term symptoms in kids, too. (Reddy, 8/24)

AP: WHO: Children Aged 6-To-11 Should Wear Masks At Times, Too
Just as millions of children are heading back to school, the World Health Organization says those aged 6 to 11 should wear masks in some cases to help fight the spread of coronavirus. The recommendations presented Monday follow the widespread belief that children under 12 are not considered as likely to propagate the virus as much as adults. Children in general face less severe virus symptoms than do adults, with the elderly the most vulnerable to severe infection and death. (Keaten, 8/24)

CIDRAP: 40 Million Adults Who Work Or Live With Children At Risk For Severe COVID-19
A research letter published late last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that about 40 million US adults who work or live with school-aged children have definite or possible risk factors for severe COVID-19, carrying implications for fall school reopenings. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and City University of New York at Hunter College who analyzed representative data from the 2018 National Health Interview Survey showed that 2.9 million of 5.8 million K-12 teachers (50.6%) had definite or possible risk factors for serious coronavirus illness, including obesity (32.1%), heart conditions (8.0%), and cancer (0.7%). Of nonteaching staff, 55.8% had definite or possible risk factors. (8/24)

Stat: Pharmacists Say They Tell Patients About Pill Changes, But Patients Say Otherwise
Most consumers say they aren’t notified of physical changes in their prescription pills, even though most pharmacists report they do alert their customers, a disconnect that is contributing to a lack of patient adherence, according to a new analysis. At issue are the occasional variations in shape, size, or color of medicines that manufacturers make for different reasons. Half of 1,000 consumers who were surveyed reported such a change in the past year, and 29% thought they received the wrong pill. As a result, 1 in 8 either took their pills less frequently or stopped taking them altogether. (Silverman, 8/24)

The New York Times: Cartilage Is Grown In The Arthritic Joints Of Mice 
The painful knees and hips experienced by so many people with osteoarthritis result from a loss of cartilage, which serves as a sort of cushioning in the joints. It had long been thought that cartilage, once gone, cannot grow back. Now researchers at Stanford University have grown new cartilage in the joints of arthritic mice. Primitive cells that can be transformed into new cartilage lie dormant at the ends of bones, the researchers reported in Nature Medicine. The cells just have to be awakened and stimulated to grow. (Kolata, 8/22)

Stat: Sun Pharma Unit To Pay $21M For Giving False Instructions For Acne Treatmnt
A unit of Sun Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay nearly $21 million to settle allegations of providing false instructions to doctors for an acne treatment and, in turn, causing federal health care programs such as Medicare to overpay for the medication.At issue is a product called Levulan Kerastick, an acne ointment that is used in conjunction with an illuminated blue light. (Silverman, 8/24)

NPR: Florida Judge Rules State Order Requiring Schools To Reopen 'Unconstitutional' 
A Florida judge on Monday ruled against the state's order requiring schools to open for in-person instruction by the end of August, calling parts of it "unconstitutional." He granted a temporary injunction, putting the decision-making power in the hands of individual districts. The emergency order was issued by Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran in early July as the state's coronavirus cases surged, and mandated that all districts open "brick and mortar schools" at least five days a week for families who want to send their students back, or else risk losing already-allocated funding. (Treisman, 8/24)

The Washington Post: College Counseling Centers Plan To Help Students Returning Virtually Or In-Person 
As colleges begin on-campus and virtual returns by students, counseling center directors hope “even students not previously engaged with the centers will drop by, tune in, check out websites or at least open email messages of support and suggestions the centers will be sending out to everyone,” said Micky M. Sharma, director of the Office of Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service at Ohio State University in Columbus. (Kritz, 8/24)

The Washington Post: Kenosha Police Shooting: Hundreds Protest Jacob Blake's Shooting In Wisconsin 
What started as a peaceful demonstration on Monday evening in Kenosha, Wis., over the police shooting of Jacob Blake swiftly evolved into chaos. Officers shot the 29-year-old Black man multiple times in the back on Sunday as he entered a car with his children inside, a videotaped incident that has sparked national protests. Kenosha police on Monday used tear gas and fired small beanbags at a crowd that threw firecrackers, tore down street signs, smashed storefronts and set fires around the city. By early Tuesday morning, the National Guard rolled through the streets as multiple buildings burned to the ground and looters ransacked stores. (Peiser and Guarino, 8/25)

MarketWatch: Report Card: Which Hotel Brands Have Adapted Best To COVID-19? 
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned travel upside down, and the hotel industry has been forced to cope with a constantly changing landscape of traveler expectations. From new cancellation policies to improved cleaning and social distancing procedures, major hotel brands have scrambled to adapt to the new reality. But which hotel brands have adapted best? Which have offered the most customer-friendly policies and been willing to sacrifice bottom-line concerns for the sake of guest safety? (Kemmis, 8/25)

Reuters: Gaza In Lockdown To Try To Contain Its First COVID-19 Outbreak 
A lockdown took hold in Gaza on Tuesday after confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in the general population of the Palestinian enclave, whose restricted borders have spared it from wide infection. Health authorities in the Hamas Islamist-run territory of two million people are concerned over the potentially disastrous combination of poverty, densely populated refugee camps and limited hospital facilities in dealing with an outbreak. (al-Mughrabi, 8/25)

The Washington Post: Brazil Coronavirus: Retreat Of Covid-19 In Amazon's Manaus Raises Questions Of Herd Immunity 
Hospitalizations of coronavirus patients plummeted in the Brazilian city of Manaus from a peak of more than 1,300 in May to fewer than 300 in August. Excess deaths in Manaus fell from around 120 per day to practically zero. The city closed its field hospital. In a country devastated by the novel coronavirus, where more than 3.6 million people have been infected and over 114,000 killed, the reversal has stunned front-line doctors. Manaus never imposed a lockdown or other strict containment measures employed successfully in Asia and Europe. And what policies did exist, many people ignored. (McCoy and Traiano, 8/24)

Reuters: Australia Reaches 25,000 Coronavirus Cases, Officials Urge More Testing 
Australia surpassed 25,000 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, tipped over the milestone by the recent outbreak in Victoria state and prompting a warning from authorities about declining test numbers. Australia recorded 151 new infections over the past 24 hours, up from 121 a day earlier, with Victoria responsible for the bulk of the cases and New South Wales accounting for the remainder. (Packham, 8/24)

Reuters: South Korea Closes Most Schools In Seoul Area To Battle Resurgent Coronavirus
South Korea on Tuesday ordered most schools in Seoul and surrounding areas to close and move classes back online, the latest in a series of precautionary measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases. (8/24)

Politico: Germany Issues Travel Warning For Paris Area, French Riviera 
Germany issued a travel warning for the region that includes Paris as well as for the French Riviera on Monday evening due to high numbers of coronavirus cases. A statement from the government’s Robert Koch Institute said the regions of Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d‘Azur are now classified as “risk areas,” along with other places where there is an “increased risk of infection” of the virus. (Anderson, 8/24)

Reuters: Singapore Reports Fewest Daily COVID-19 Cases In Five Months 
Singapore reported 31 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, its lowest daily count in more than five months. The city-state, which saw its COVID-19 cases jump sharply after mass outbreaks in migrant worker dormitories earlier in the year, has recently seen steady declines as those dormitories have been cleared of the coronavirus. (8/25)